Thursday, March 25, 2010

I've had a big year. You know all those big life changes, yeah, I've had a lot of them. One of my colleagues was encouraging me to sign up for this really awesome Project Management Certification at Stanford, and I was realizing that it was about this time last year that I dropped out of my MBA program. I want to take more classes and further my education, but I like a work/life balance, and I have stuff going on! I also like lists, so here's one for today:

My last year:
  • March: dropped my MBA program
  • April: lost my Dad - in San Diego for a month
  • June: Went to Telluride
  • August: Got married
  • August: Mini-moon in NorCal
  • November: Birthday party with 20+ friends & mom & her new boyfriend
  • December: Got a promotion
  • December: Visited Grandma in Effingham Illinois
  • January: Celebrated 5 year (dating ) anniversary with Jim
  • January: Started fostering Sanzu (kitty #2)
  • February: Start looking for a house
  • March: Buy a house, move from San Jose to San Mateo
It's crazy to look at this all, and see the ups and downs, and see how live just keeps chugging along.
I love cheesy Christmas update letters, but didn't do one this year, because I was crazy busy, and because it felt like I'd have three things to say:
  • Dad died
  • I got married
  • Jim still doesn't have a job
Well, now Jim does have a job, even if it's just a temp one for now. And really, there's a lot of stuff going on all around me. Crazy.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

We haz a house! Yesterday was moving day, and I'm so glad that's done. It's great to actually be in the house. We have a lot of work to do still, but at least we have a great home base.




First my office moved. That was a lot of work too. Fortunately, as we unpacked, I got to take a bunch of the boxes. They filled my cube, and I was unsure that I would actually need THAT many boxes. But I did.









Then we had to do a few things to get ready to move in. We had to buy appliances. This is Vasily and I getting rejected for the Sears credit card. Because we can buy a house, but can't get new applicances. Stupid Sears. Oh well, we still bought our appliances from them.







Then we did some work on the house. We changed the locks, and installed new knobs where there were none. There were also locks that locked us into the house. That's not a good idea. Fixed that.










Then we painted the baby blue office grey!



















And Vasily's horrible red walls were painted.


















We also had our first meal in our new house, sitting on the floor of our dining room.












The appliances finally came and were installed. They are new and pretty and shiny.












Meanwhile, at home, we piled everything we own on top of each other to make space for boxes, and the like. Sanzu was a fan of climbing.
















Moving day finally came, and we had an excellent team. And by team, I mean small village. Which is exactly what we needed to move this ikea bookcase. We had to basically push it over our balcony and have about 8 people catch it.








It's always fun to move large furniture around narrow spaces...

Also, holy crap I have a lot of stuff. A lot of old fragile nice furniture. I can't believe how much stuff I have...

















That 26 foot truck, it ended up pretty full. Holy crap, I have a lot of stuff.









The next stop was Vasily's house, where we somehow made room for everything of his in the truck, and in everyone's cars.




Jim drove the giant UHaul, and was AWESOME. Although it was pretty funny when he trapped Brian's car in our new driveway. Brian eventually got out, and Jim was directed by about 10 people and managed to back into our driveway.








Once everything was unloaded, the crowd rejoiced! Thanks much in part to Margaret, our awesome realtor who brought us pizza and pasta.












Zana wins for coming all the way from Oregon and helping us move. This is our living room at the moment, you can actually walk through it, which I find quite impressive.









I like this picture because it looks so casual. It looks like it could be from any party at our house, and not like these people just hauled everything we own up the peninsula. And they all fit in the living room. Amazing!









This is where I am now. It's Sunday morning. I spent the first night in the new house, and it was great. The kitties are much less traumatized than they were while we were moving. Jim is still asleep (he's the lump next to me), and now all I have to do is figure out which box contains clean clothes, and then I can start unpacking!











One more shout out: Jim, Vasily & I have the most amazing friends & family in the whole world. It's crazy that so many people willingly volunteered to help us move. It was so nice to be able to let the strong men do the heavy lifting, let the tetris masters figure out how everything fit in the truck, and in general just have people to step up and help out with everything. Thank you so much!!

Once we've settled in and unpacked, I'll take more pictures of the house, and yes, we'll have a housewarming party too, so that we can see everyone without subjecting them to physical labor all day.